Team
Team
Aleks Dimitrijevic
Festival Director
Aleks has over 18 years of experience in programming and audience development, championing emerging talent across screen industries. Most recently, she led six editions of the BFI Future Film Festival. She previously directed The Smalls Film Festival and has worked across programming and production for leading UK festivals including Sheffield Doc/Fest, BFI London Film Festival, LOCO London Comedy Film Festival and London Film Week.
Philip Ilson
Artistic Director
Philip Ilson co-founded LSFF in 2004. He was the short film programmer for the BFI London Film Festival between 2006 and 2022, and has worked as a freelance programmer, including at the East End Film Festival (London), Cork Film Festival (Ireland), and the Branchage Festival (Jersey), Latitude music festival, and at Curzon Soho Cinema.
Alice Maestrini
Festival Producer
Alice Maestrini is a film festival producer and cinema manager. Before joining LSFF, she worked in production roles at various festivals including London Korean Film Festival and London Indian Film Festival. She was also co-director of community cinema Screen25 and is now a manager at Rich Mix.
Programme Team
Varun Raman
Director of New Shorts
Previously LSFF’s UK Lead Programmer, Varun is currently a Programming Associate for Narrative Shorts at SXSW and Assistant Director of Shorts Programming at Fantastic Fest. He’s also a writer and filmmaker – his most recent short, Man or Tree, won an award at Clermont-Ferrand and is a Vimeo Staff Pick.
Akinna Aquino
Head of Programme
Akinna Aquino is a British-Filipino producer working across film and events. She delivered the first virtual editions of both the London Short Film Festival and the London Screenwriters’ Festival in 2020/21. In addition, she’s worked on a number of film/video projects including 3D animations for Coloro x WGSN and a short film looking at the lives of the Filipino immigrant community.
Qila Gill
Associate Programmer
Qila Gill is a film programmer currently working with various international film festivals. She began at LSFF as an International Programmer and later became Co-Head of Programme; for 2025, she returns as an Associate Programmer, focusing on the documentary section and thematic programming. Alongside this role, she serves on the selection committees for the London Film Festival (Experimenta), Berlinale Generation, and Berlinale Shorts. She also returns to the Singapore International Film Festival, curating the Southeast Asian Shorts competition for the third consecutive year and the Horizon section for 2025. Previously, she served on the selection committees for Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg and Sheffield Doc/Fest, was a SXSW documentary screener (2024), and programmed for Aesthetica Film Festival. She also had a stint as Distribution Director at LUX, London, and has produced artists' films and documentaries.
Sylvie Dumont
Selection Committee Member
Sylvie Dumont has been with LSFF since 2020. When not watching shorts for the next festival she manages the Rio Cinema in Dalston and produces short films for friends and family. She holds an MA in Postcolonial Culture & Global Policy at Goldsmiths with a dissertation focused on film archives, anarchy, and accessibility.
Umloda Ibrahim
Selection Committee Member
Umloda is a Glasgow-based film researcher, studying the history of Sudanese Cinema and investigating how resistance appears in Sudanese films and modes of production. She has interdisciplinary experience working for a range of artistic and cultural organisations, including theatres, media charities, and film festivals. Her interests are in reclaiming narratives that have been overlooked and championing authentic stories about the communities around her.
Martyna Ratnikaite
Selection Committee Member
Martyna is a Lithuanian cultural worker whose practice explores memory politics in the post/Soviet space. She holds a BA degree from the University of the Arts London’s Film and Screen Studies course and has previously pre-selected for IndieCork, in addition to serving as a juror for Venice IFF‘s Giornate section.
Mascuud Dahir
Selection Committee Member
Mascuud is an actor, writer, poet and DJ born and raised in East London.He’s performed across screen and on stage - working with Theatre Peckham, Stratford East and Roundhouse. As a spoken word artist, he’s headlined sold-out shows across London. Blending prose and poetry to craft stories, his written work has been showcased at the Royal Court and Talawa Theatre.
Nicky Ni
Selection Committee Member
A Chinese expat living in Chicago, Nicky Ni writes and curates exhibitions and screenings. She is currently Curatorial Resident at Chicago Artists Coalition, Editor at Sixty Inches From Center, and Programmer for Onion City Experimental Film Festival. She is co-founder of LITHIUM and has curated exhibitions or screenings at Conversations at the Edge, Mana Contemporary, Museum of Contemporary Photography, SITE Galleries, 062.
Gamze Şanlı
Selection Committee Member
Gamze Şanlı is a London-based multidisciplinary artist and performer uplifting untold stories through experimental theatre, independent film and documentary. Her craft weaves socio-politics, ancestral remembrance, nostalgic fantasy, poetic horror, mythology and magic. Firmly rooted and always entangled in arts and politics, she seeks to reflect, re-tell and archive intersectional struggles.
Gabriel Calderwood
Selection Committee Member
Gabriel Calderwood is a writer and director based in London. He’s an avid cinephile with a special interest in Central East European cinema. He is currently working on his first feature film, The Memory of the Seagulls, and novel Days of Simple Pleasures.
Lucy Peters
Selection Committee Member
Lucy Peters is a writer, film programmer and curator researching and exhibiting experimental/female directed cinema. Her work 'Female Rebels of the Avant-Garde' has been presented at BFI Southbank and the University of Sussex, alongside curational programming at Genesis Cinema, and The Rio. She also screens from her collective exhibition initiative @electricbluecinema, a nomadic film series to bring the under-screened to young audiences.
Najrin Islam
Selection Committee Member
Najrin Islam is a writer and film programmer whose research interest is situated at the intersection of archival politics and institutional omissions in South Asian experimental cinema. Her writings have featured in ArtReview Asia, e-flux Criticism, and Alternative South Asia Photography, among other publications.
Robyn Mckinson
Selection Committee Member
Robyn Mckinson is a recent Film and Screen Studies graduate from the University of the Arts London, with a strong focus on film programming and a passion for bold, experimental cinema. Early in her career, she has curated work for the London Short Film Festival and contributed to several festival teams in the UK and USA.
Dami Ojobaro
Selection Committee Member
Dami Ojobaro is a filmmaker, actor and curator amplifying underrepresented voices in cinema. As a London Short Film Festival Selection Committee member, he draws on his experience programming events for Black creatives from low-income and marginalised backgrounds, with a focus on thoughtful curation, cultural relevance, and platforming new perspectives.
Ying-Di Yin
Selection Committee Member
Ying-Di Yin is a London-based, Chinese-Australian film curator, writer, producer and communications specialist. She is Head of Special Projects at Girls in Film and has worked at the Sydney Opera House and Artichoke Trust, and collaborated with Tate Modern, Hinge and Melbourne International Film Festival. Ying-Di uses authentic and diverse storytelling to connect audiences with contemporary culture and social issues.